My 14-month-old has been having some different napping behavior lately. She used to pretty consistently nap twice a day, once around 10 and then again around 3, then go to bed around 9:30ish. Lately she has been all over the place, sometimes skipping or postponing the morning nap, and then sometimes even getting exhausted and falling asleep for her afternoon nap after 5, sleeping till 7ish. Then she is going to bed around 10:30. Is this normal??? Is she trying to transistion to one nap? How can I help her with this and keep her from conking out for a nap so late in the afternoon?. If anybody could share some advice or some naptime/bedtime schedules that are working out, I would really appreciate some guidance. Thanks!
Thank you to all who answered my request! You were right. She is now pretty much napping once a day, going down between 12:30 and 1:30 depending on what time she got up in the morning, and sleeping till between 2:30 and 4. She still has those times when she takes a power nap in the early afternoon and then takes a longer late nap, but it is nice to know she is becoming more regular about it!
My son did this and I just nixed the morning nap and now he has one nap. I put him down around 1 or 2 and he usually sleeps for 2-3 hours! Good luck!
This is just about the right age to transition to one nap. I would try skipping the morning nap and keeping her up until around 1pm. She should sleep for about 2 hours or so and then be okay to stay up until bedtime. She may even go down a little earlier for you at night if you wanted to. It might take her some time to transition (like a week or so), but once you get her on a better schedule where she's taking one nap in the early afternoon, that should work out better for you. Good luck! It's always a little hard when they transition. Just when you think you have it all figured out....
I was just reading back through my blogs from my first child and he transitioned to one nap around 13 months. Since then his nap has been either right after lunch or early afternoon for a couple hours (maybe a little longer while he was transitioning). I know there were several times over the several months (13 - 18
months) that he needed a late afternoon nap, but the majority of days the early aft nap did the trick. I think once you get the nap thing straightened out she'll go back to her normal bedtime.
So glad you're enjoying her full time; the next few months are so fun!
Hi A.,
I didn't read thru all your responses so I apologize if I am repeating what others have said. All 3 of my girls went thru this. It sounds like your little one is trying to transition to one nap. My 3 varied a bit, but for the most part, what I did at this stage was feed them lunch early (around 11am), then put them down for their nap by about noon. They would typically nap for anywhere from an hour and a half to 4 hours, and I would adjust bedtime depending on what kind of nap they had. I.E., if the nap was 2 hours, then bedtime was 7:30, but if the nap was 4 hours, they could stay up until 8:30 or so. I also really watched them for signs of being tired at night...my oldest would get really wired and start running around like a crazy person right before she collapsed into a big toddler meltdown; my 2nd would actually ASK me to take her to bed when she was tired (she was speaking in sentences at 14 months, believe it or not); and my 3rd would just get typically cranky when she was ready for bed. So, even if they'd had a long nap, if the signs of tiredness were showing at 7pm, I'd take them to bed. They're all different so you have to find what works for you and your little girl. Good luck!
Hi A.
My son is 15 mos & we're going through some wacky nap stuff too. He use to nap at 10 & 3 like your daughter, but I think our kiddos are ready to drop the morning nap. My mom suggested I start skipping the morning nap & putting him down after lunch. She said that he may be a little cranky in the mornings at 1st but after a while he'll get use to it & we could even push it back to around 2 pm. She said that with me & my brother & sister we all slept longer at night after we dropped the morning nap.
